Certain electronic systems, such as high-end computer server systems, storage server systems, telecommunications switch systems, and so forth, include a plurality of electronic modules, such as processing modules, storage modules, switch modules, and so forth. The multiple electronic modules are typically mounted inside a cabinet of the electronic system.
In a first type of computer server system, for example, the processing modules are electrically connected together by electrical wires. Each processing module can include a relatively large number of components, including multiple processors and other components. Consequently, there can be a relatively large number of electrical wires connecting the processing modules. Electrical wire management in computer server systems has become a major industry concern, as the amount of electrical wires present in the system affects the mechanical packaging of the computer server system.
If there are a large number of processing modules in the computer server system, then the relatively large number of electrical wires that have to be provided in the cabinet can become unwieldy. A high density of electrical wires inside the cabinet may result in reduced airflow within the cabinet, which may adversely affect the ability to cool components of each processing module. To further exacerbate the electrical wiring issue, extra lengths are often added to the electrical wires connected to the processing modules to enable sliding withdrawal of a processing module from a server cabinet for servicing. By making the electrical wires longer than necessary, a processing module can remain powered (and therefore available to users of a network environment, for example) even as the processing module is withdrawn from the server cabinet for servicing.
A second type of computer server system uses a backplane. Processing modules are electrically connected (by wires) to the backplane. The backplane is made up of interconnect circuitry to enable communication between the processing modules. Although the complexity of electrical wiring is reduced with this configuration, an issue of the second type of computer system is that it may be difficult to pull out a processing module for servicing without shutting down the processing module. To enable servicing of individual processing modules while the processing module remains live, relatively complicated solutions may often have to be employed, which add to the cost and complexity of the computer server system.